Investissement Québec (IQ) has taken refuge behind legal provisions to refuse to disclose the names of the ten companies that have received financial assistance of $ 68 million thanks to the discretionary power of the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon.
The Office of Compliance, Ombudsman and Governance argued that releasing this information would violate the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies.
“It turns out that we cannot give you the documents” replied Senior Director Danielle Vivier, in a letter to Duty dated December 9.
The access to information request of the Duty aimed to obtain the documents making it possible to know the companies for which Mr. Fitzgibbon has adjusted the terms of the Temporary Concerted Action Program for Companies (PACTE) so that they benefit from this financial assistance. The request also referred to the analyzes prior to these decisions by the Minister.
Ms. Vivier invoked eight articles of the law to justify its termination. Among these, some authorize public bodies like IQ, a crown corporation, to refuse to disclose information which would reveal a loan, a trade secret, personal information or which could harm a negotiation.
The Auditor General, Guylaine Leclerc, tabled a report two weeks ago questioning Mr. Fitzgibbon’s discretionary power in the problematic allocation of loans or loan guarantees to ten companies.
Ms. Leclerc noted a lack of transparency regarding these companies, which benefited from a relaxation of the PACTE rules, although this possibility had not been disclosed when the eligibility criteria were made public.
Liberals persist
In the House on Thursday, Mr. Fitzgibbon was once again the target of the Liberals, who have kept him in the hot seat for several days in question period.
“I have been rising in this House for two weeks to ask the Minister of the Economy for just one thing: that he reveal to us the list of the 10 companies which have benefited from his discretionary power” declared during question period the deputy Monsef Derraji.
Mr Fitzgibbon reiterated that the recipient companies should not be harmed.
“We cannot harm companies by disclosing, like that, the name of the company with which Investissement Québec has a relationship of trust,” said the Minister.
Over the past few days, Mr. Fitzgibbon has revealed that he had used an internal management guide that did not contain criteria to award the financial aid for which he had received criticism from the Auditor General.
The minister argued that he relied on IQ analyzes to make his decisions.
In her report, Guylaine Leclerc writes that the minister’s authorizations were “generally given verbally” to members of the Ministry of the Economy (MEI) and IQ during a meeting where they presented their analyzes and recommendations.
“Subsequently, the MEI’s administrative authorities record the minister’s decisions in writing and forward them to IQ,” the document said.
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